HONOURED - The Phillipines honoured Stan Deighton, from Tilehurst, for his service with HMS Illustrious in the latter stages of the Second World War

A WAR hero from Tilehurst has been honoured by the Philippines for his fight against Japan in what veterans regard as the forgotten fleet.

Stan Deighton, of Hardwick Road, served as a gunnery rating on HMS Illustrious, an aircraft carrier which joined the US Pacific fleet for the final thrust towards mainland Japan and the last epic land and sea battle of the Second World War.

A naval invasion force of almost 1,200 ships and 500,000 troops was assembled for the assault on Okinawa, 330 miles south west of Japan.

The island, about 70 miles long and 10 miles wide, was defended by 130,000 Japanese.

The invasion was preceded by an air and sea bombardment carried out by hundreds of bombers and warships, including 40 aircraft carriers, 18 battleships and more than 200 cruisers and destroyers.

The titanic operation carried on during the summer of 1945, and is regarded as the bloodiest campaign island battle of the war in the Pacific.

The Japanese hurled around 1,900 kamikaze planes into the attack, mainly against aircraft carriers like HMS Illustrious and other Royal Navy carriers, whose flight decks were armour-plated, which reduced casualty rates.

The United Kingdom and Northern Ireland lost 82 during the battle.

A total of 50,000 US combatants were killed or wounded and there were 125,000 Japanese deaths.

The Pacific War ended on August 14, 1945, with the Japanese surrender Mr Deighton said: "But many people in Europe take the end of the Second World War to be May 1945, so we have been referred to as the forgotten fleet."

But the Philippines certainly have not forgotten their liberation as the Allies drove the Japanese back.

Last week, Mr Deighton, 81, was sent a package containing a medal from the Embassy of the Philippines in Canberra, Australia, which was the base for the Pacific fleet. A letter from the ambassador, Delia Albert, said: "Please accept the enclosed Philippine Liberation medal as an expression of recognition by the Philippine government and the people for the courage and the sacrifices of veterans who participated in the liberation of the Philippines."

Mr Deighton, a member of Tilehurst Royal British Legion, also saw service in the Battle of the Atlantic and helped protect convoys in the Mediterranean.

He said: "I was pleased to receive the medal of course, in fact honoured, but the regrettable part is that this fleet was referred to as the forgotten fleet. A few of us, we have not forgotten."

Mr Deighton will remember his fallen comrades at the cenotaph in Tilehurst Triangle on Sunday, November 11.